Posts Tagged ‘The Silver Lining’

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More adventure gaming news now, following John’s tearful account of the beautiful To The Moon. Sunday sees the release of the fourth episode of Pheonix Online’s unofficial King’s Quest game, The Silver Lining. As with the others, it’s absolutely free but they are after money for something else. While working away on The Silver Lining, they’ve announced a new project, Cognition, in collaboration with Gabriel Knight designer Jane Jensen. It looks like a darker affair than King’s Quest, which admittedly isn’t a stretch, and there’s a short promotional video for that as well. Two videos in one post – it’s like a multiplex down there!

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For a wonderful second I was convinced this was the fourth episode of the unofficial King’s Quest fan-game The Silver Lining, and was all braced to use the headline “Four Ever Cloud.” Imagine how clever and funny that would have been. Just. Imagine. Instead, you’re stuck with whatever the heck I’ve written up there instead. I haven’t even decided what it is yet, I’m just hoping inspiration will somehow strike as I’m typing this.

So, The Silver Lining – a free game made by devout enthusiasts of the old Sierra adventure series (the ones that some people keep complaining we didn’t cover in The List, which spans the last two decades; as I said in comments somewhere, an 80s appendix strikes me as a good idea for the near-future). Episode 3 here now, and its trailer is below.Read the rest of this entry »

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I suspect John will write some impressions on this up, but since he’s still away on holiday, I want to bring to your adventuring attention to the second episode of the King’s Quest-inspired graphic adventure, which is now available to download. John was a bit down on the first episode, not least because it didn’t really have any significant puzzles in it. So, basically, that was an intro and this – entitled “Two Households” – is where the game should kick off. Abstractly. More formal improvements to the first episode include a walk/run toggle, widescreen support and a shorter-narration option for those who feel they should shut the fuck up. All those changes have been implemented in episode 1 too. Anyway, you can get it here, and the trailer is below…Read the rest of this entry »

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After much to-and-fro, King’s Quest tribute game The Silver Lining from Phoenix Online Studios has not only been granted a release by IP holders Activision, but the first episode is out now. A completely fan-made project, and completely free, it’s been eight years in creation. I’ve finished the first chapter, so here’s Wot I Think.

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You may remember back in March we brought you the very sad news that the giant, evil clawed feet of Activision had cruelly stomped down on the fan-made King’s Quest game, The Silver Lining. Well, it turns out that Activision’s feet are fluffy little kitten paws, not capable of crushing a weeny bug. (Or perhaps somewhere in between – Realism Ed) A deal has been struck between the amateur developers, Phoenix Online Studios, and the giant laser-eyed robot publisher, and the first episode of the new game will be released on the 10th July. That would be in two weeks!

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Goodbye The Silver Lining. Our culture is formed by the sharing of ideas. Throughout history, for millennia, every piece of art, music, literature and entertainment has been the result of a worldwide collaboration. It’s been an astonishing act of creative evolution, the most vibrant and extraordinary gene pool of imagination and inspiration, from which all were free to draw and create. It has been exceptional, and in the last 50 to 100 years it has come to an end.

The tragedy of the abuse and misuse of intellectual property and copyright cannot be counted. After centuries of sharing, we have allowed a “MINE!” tag to be affixed to every thought, string of notes, doodle on a page, or merest whim. We have committed a grotesque cultural suicide. And the extent to which this has reached should be a parody. We have now allowed ourselves to be in the situation where art museums ban sketching – something that should surely make anyone whose understanding of art history goes beyond yesterday scream in fear. And it exists in our world of gaming in a similarly berserk form. And so it is that Activision has closed down work on not-for-profit fan creation The Silver Lining.